Will the Blue Dogs Ever Bite?
We’ve written more than once about the Democratic “Blue Dogs” and the lack of any actual evidence for their supposed fiscal conservatism.
Now Merrill Mathews in The Wall Street Journal tells the sad story of the Blue Dogs in the Obama era. They call in the journalists, and they moan and complain about their concerns over the deficit and rising federal spending. And when the rubber meets the road, what happens?
• The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). One of the first things the Democratic leadership wanted the newly inaugurated President Obama to sign was a huge expansion of SCHIP. Democrats have been trying to pass the expansion for over a year, with some bipartisan support. President George W. Bush vetoed the legislation twice, and Congress sustained his veto both times by a hair.
SCHIP was created for low-income uninsured children not eligible for Medicaid. Under the old bill, children whose family incomes were 200% of the federal poverty level were covered. With the new bill, Democrats increased funding to cover children whose family incomes are up to 300% of the federal poverty level—or $66,000 a year for a family of four. The Bush administration and most conservatives thought it should remain at 200%. Did the Blue Dogs agree? Only two voted against the expansion.
• The $787 billion stimulus. The next major spending package was Mr. Obama’s stimulus bill. Not one House Republican voted for the bill. The Blue Dogs? Only 10 of 52 voted against it.
• President Obama’s 2010 federal budget. In April, Congress took a vote on the president’s $3.5 trillion budget for 2010—by far the biggest spending package in history. Again, not one House Republican voted for the bill, but only 14 Blue Dogs joined them in opposition.
Matthews says the health care bill is the Blue Dogs’ last chance to show that they actually do care whether the federal government spends us into bankruptcy.
Higher Taxes for Health Care, Fewer Jobs
President Obama broke his pledge not to raise taxes on lower- and middle-income families with his large tobacco tax increase back in February. It appears that the increase is not just hurting tobacco consumers, but also hurting workers in the cigar industry. From Tampa Bay Online:
Tampa will lose part of its cigar heritage in August when Hav-A-Tampa shuts its factory near Seffner and lays off about 495 employees, closing a factory that has been operating since 1902.
Several things conspired to hurt Altadis’ sales, McKenzie said, including the recession and the growth of indoor smoking bans. The bans have especially hurt sales in cold-weather states, where it’s impractical to smoke a cigar outdoors in the winter, he said.
However, the company attributed much of its trouble to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, a federal program that provides health insurance to low-income children. It is funded, in part, by a new federal tax on cigars and cigarettes. McKenzie couldn’t say how much sales of Hav-A-Tampa cigars had fallen off, but the numbers have dropped significantly, he said.
Previously, federal excise taxes on cigars were limited to no more than a nickel, said Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America trade group. The tax increase, which took effect April 1, raises the maximum tax on cigars to about 40 cents, Sharp said.
This health-tobacco legislation raised taxes $65 billion over 10 years. Imagine the damage that would be caused by the giant health bill currently moving through Congress, which will cost $1 trillion or more over 10 years.
Hat Tip: Tad DeHaven
Filed under: Health, Welfare & Entitlements; Regulatory Studies
Una Hora de SCHIP
HITN’s Destination Casa Blanca has posted their hour-long program — featuring yours truly — on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program expansion that President Obama just signed into law (the utter lack of evidence of effectiveness notwithstanding).
During the program, I shatter the myths that SCHIP is for low-income children, that it’s a cost-effective way of improving children’s health, etc.
I guess we know what you’ll be doing for the next hour.
Filed under: Cato Publications; General; Health, Welfare & Entitlements
Can You Say Oxymoron?
The House is expected to vote today on an expansion of the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). My colleague, Michael Cannon, has frequently written on the problems of this poorly targeted program that moves six children from private to public coverage for every four uninsured children that it covers. However, it is interesting to note that the $33 billion expansion is supposedly paid for primarily through a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette tax. Yet, at the same time, President-elect Obama announced that his choice for Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services is William Corr, an anti-tobacco lobbyist and executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. So we can shortly expect the Obama administration to step up efforts to stop people from smoking, thereby reducing the taxes they are counting on to pay for their SCHIP expansion. One hardly knows whether to wish them success.
Cato on Facebook
Cato on Twitter
Cato on YouTube
Cato Tweets